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Warming the Crocuses!

Saturday, March 9, 2013 9:32

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Latest post from MARKSVEGPLOT – a blog about food and gardening in England”

Everyone knows that Crocuses love the sunshine. When the sun is out, the Crocus flowers spread out their petals and soak up the sunshine. When the weather is dull and wet though, the Crocuses hate it, and curl up tight hiding their beautiful colours from the cold raindrops. These last couple of days have been grey and wet, and I have had little opportunity for outdoor gardening, so I decided to bring my potted Crocuses inside for an indoor photo-shoot…

This one is called “Prins Claus”. At first sight it seems to be all-white

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But look underneath those petals. They have big splashes of purple.

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So far only three of the flowers have opened, but there are buds on the others, so it won’t be long.

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I have a pot of “Ruby Giant” too – although their colour is not what I’d call ruby. More like purple, though I suppose they might look different in strong sunlight. These photos of mine are taken under artificial light, on the Dining Room table. I’ll show you a sequence of photos demonstrating how the warm light persuades the flowers to open, all in the course of just a few minutes:

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Tightly closed, and covered in raindrops

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Beginning to relax

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Just one or two tiny raindrops left

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Starting to reveal the bright orange coloured stamens

This next Crocus is simply called “Yellow”, and is advertised as “Ideal for naturalising” so I’m not expecting them to be such good specimens, individually. They are not 100% yellow though, because they have little steaks of purple on the undersides of their petals.

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When they are just opening they are a very deep colour – reminiscent of the yolk of a good free-range egg!

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Phew! This one may have overdone it a bit with the heat-lamp. I expect it will close up again when it cools off.

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I have one more pot of Crocuses out in the garden. They are ones I saved from last year and re-planted. Unfortunately none of them have opened yet, and I can’t remember which colour they are. I’ll just have to be patient and wait and see.

It was amazing to see what difference a few hours indoors made to these Crocuses. They must have thought that Spring had arrived VERY quickly this year!

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With the weather forecast predicting an imminent return to Winter conditions, have I got the heart to put the poor old Crocuses outside again? What do you think….?

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P.S. The following day….